Recap: Los Angeles vs. Colorado

The Kings' trio of Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar were a perfect 3-for-3 in the shootout against Colorado goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was an injury replacement.

Carter and Mike Richards scored 1:47 apart in the first period for Los Angeles, which snapped a two-game winless streak.

"The first (period) was good, we came out strong, outshot them in the first by quite a bit and sat back a little bit, which is not the best thing to do obviously and they came back," Kopitar said. "But at the end of the day, we got the two points and that's the most important thing for us."

The Kings are fourth in the Western Conference with 50 points, one more than San Jose and two ahead of St. Louis.

Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick made 26 saves before stopping 1-of-2 skaters in the deciding phase to match Kelly Hrudey for second place in team history with 145 wins.

Paul Stastny and Patrick Bordeleau provided the goals for the Avalanche, who had snapped a 14-game road losing streak Wednesday in Anaheim.

Giguere was called into action when 20-year-old Finn Sami Aittokallio, making his NHL debut, departed at the 9:24 mark of the third period due to cramps.

"Sami left the game with cramps in both legs," said Colorado head coach Joe Sacco. "It was pretty serious because he couldn't finish the game. He was just dehydrated."

Aittokallio made 23 saves, while Giguere turned aside all 12 shots he faced through the rest of regulation and overtime.

Colorado got on the board when David Jones forced a turnover behind the Los Angeles net with a hit. Stastny collected the puck and beat Quick on a shot from the far post at 16:22 of the second period.

Bordeleau tied things up with his first NHL goal. Defenseman Stefan Elliott let go a right-point shot that was initially deflected by a Kings player before the puck went in off the stick blade of Bordeleau at 5:05 of the third period.

Carter opened the scoring on a power play 5:27 into the game, and Richards capitalized on a broken play to put Los Angeles up 2-0. Jake Muzzin fanned on his shot, but Richards retrieved the puck by lifting the stick of an Avalanche player and scored from the slot at 7:14.

Game Notes

Aittokallio became the second youngest goalie to make his NHL debut for
the Avalanche. Marc Denis was 19 when he played against the Kings on Dec. 7,
1996 ... The Kings were 1-for-4 on the power play ... Colorado defenseman Erik
Johnson left the game with a wrist injury.